160 DISTRIBUTION OF LAND 



lords have, voluntarily and by private bargain, offered 

 reductions which law has there enforced. In this country 

 the worst cultivated and most highly rented soil, and the 

 most beggarly farm buildings, are found on the estates of 

 small investors. If the numbers of this latter class were 

 larger, distress would be proportionately increased, and 

 their wretched dependents might as well hope to suck 

 honey from flint as to obtain generous consideration of 

 their distress. The blow has fallen upon the wealthy 

 classes, not upon those who in ignorance resort to agrarian 

 outrage. Nor has the country failed to profit by the 

 losses of individuals. Diminished rentals do not mean a 

 corresponding increase in the wealth of foreign producers. 

 The greater part of the 300 millions that landed pro- 

 prietors have lost is distributed among the toiling millions 

 of our great cities. Schedule D of the income tax,' 

 which includes all trades and professions, proves that 

 within the past ten years the number of incomes ranging 

 from 150/. to 500Z. a year has grown 21 per cent. The 

 public servants and salaried employes of private houses of 

 business have increased 50 per cent. Estates paying 

 probate duty below 5,000/. are more numerous; the 

 capital of registered companies shows an increase of 90 

 per cent., but, while the number of shareholders has risen, 

 the average amount of their holdings has fallen; the 

 number of insurance policies has grown steadily, but the 

 sums insured are smaller; the number of depositors in 

 savings banks has increased, and the deposits per head 

 are less; the insurance companies of the poor have 

 enormously extended their business. These facts minister 

 cold comfort to impoverished landlords and ruined tenants, 



' See presidential address of the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen before 

 the Statistical Society, December 6, 1887. 



